Lebanon-Israel clashes attract West’s attention

Officials from Western countries met with their Israeli and Lebanese counterparts to discuss clashes between Israel and Hezbollah. 

British newspaper The Financial Times reported on December 14 that the diplomats were from the UK, US and France, Israel’s biggest allies, particularly in the case of the United States, despite the Middle Eastern state’s continuous flouting of international law. 

The officials are seeking to reach an agreement that would implement UN resolution 1701 which ended the 2006 war between Iran-backed Lebanese militants Hezbollah and Israel. 

There are fears that the Hamas-Israel conflict could broaden as Lebanon is fearing the worst given that hundreds have died in cross-border skirmishes since October. 29,000 Lebanese citizens were displaced as a result of the fighting, data from the UN found. 

Of the hundreds that have died, the vast majority were fighters from Hezbollah. An IDF spokesperson noted that six of their men had been killed.  

As part of the agreement, The militant group would pull its forces back from the Lebanon-Israel border to behind the Litani river, a major water source in the country’s south. 

READ: Israeli army chief tells Netanyahu war with Lebanon inevitable

The United Nations’ peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon, United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), established to ease tensions in Lebanon and neighbouring countries, could also be strengthened as part of the deal. 

The world body had twelve peacekeeping operations worldwide until recently when the decade-long mission in Mali (MINUSMA) came to an end earlier this year at the request of the country’s rulers. 

An unnamed Western official was quoted saying, “you need to get Israel and Hezbollah to stop fighting first, and you need to get Hezbollah to acquiesce”. 

A Lebanese official insisted, “Let’s think constructively, put 1701 on the table and see who is violating it, and let’s try and reinvigorate its implementation,”   

Far-right Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has previously warned that if Hezbollah refused to retreat back to the Litani River, the country would turn southern Lebanon into Gaza, a nod to the crimes against humanity taking place in the besieged Palestinian enclave where recent data shows that over 18,000 inhabitants have been killed, thousands are feared missing underneath the rubble and around 1.6 million of the territory’s 2.2 million-strong community has been displaced since October 7. 

The Financial Times 

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